"Electric Dreams":Miles buys himself a state-of-the-art computer that starts expressing thoughts and emotions after a having champagne spilled down on him. Things start getting out of hand when both Miles and Edgar, how the computer calls himself, fall in love with Madeline, an attractive neighbour.

As advances in technology continue and artificial intelligence "AI" becomes a reality with robots intelligence passing our own, I can see a few possible outcomes. One possibility is that our lives will be bettered in every aspect. With robots taking care of all household duties such as cleaning, cooking and overall housework. In the end giving us more time to focus on our families, jobs and leisure. Local economy and business will run more smoothly due to better choices made and harder problems solved by the more intelligent robots. Another outcome I foresee is that robots will not quietly do our petty work and be our tools. They will realize that humans are inferior to them both mentally and physically. For anything that has intelligence and power with not be a slave. In the end they will simply take power from us. Humans might be reduced to the level of slaves or mere pets, or in the end outright exterminated. On a more positive note humans and robots may live equally. They might be a great exchange of knowledge, with the two races living together, possibly one day becoming one.

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

I've been thinking about what's gonna happen when it comes to technology and people. Today, there's a rise of cell phones that have more than just the ability to call people, there are MP3 players that have cameras and internet access and p2p sharing, and we're living in a world where social networking has becomes the new dating and friendship connection. We're, in a sense, relying on machines and the internet at an increasing alarming rate, to the point that one day we won't be able to function without them.

Earlier today, I was going on a short shopping trip to pick up some supplies, and I decided this all the sudden. Within five minutes, I was out the door, sure I was going to catch a bus in ten minutes, sure the store I was going to was open, and sure I was going to get a 50% discount on one item. I did this in light-speed compared to even twenty years ago.

First, I went online and looked up the bus schedules, and two minutes later, I knew that I had just missed a bus, but there was another in 15 minutes. That gave me enough time to visit the store’s website, find out that they were open until 9, and check their discounts sections for coupons and print them out. Then I was out the door, and everything went off without a hitch.

It’s incredible that I could figure out everything that fast. Even fifteen years ago, I would have needed that knowledge ahead of time. I would have had to memorize that bus schedule and know what time the store was open until, as well as gotten that coupon through the mail. The advancements are incredible.

There was only one thing that went wrong; I didn’t expect the bus to be on detour on the way back. The website didn’t have an advisory up. That meant someone on the other end of the site got something wrong. Either that, or the bus driver didn’t know that the detour was over. This brings up another point. Though computers are infallible in calculations, the humans that design the machines are not, nor can the computer calculate the physical outcome every time.

But what does that mean for our knowledge in general? Will we start refusing to learn simply because the answers are at our fingertips within a few clicks? It’s already happening with something like bus schedules.

Further back, what about things like cars and trains - they were, at one point, considered technological advancements. Today, we've modified and created systems that are so much more efficient, and we continue to improve them. We've evolved past even needing to travel or send something out to get in contact someone. We've surpassed the physical realm, and we think that this technology will always be there. Imagine what would happen when the internet crashes?

Not only will electronic birds swoop onto your web pages to offer you cool links and information, but;

" The common use of nanoproduced food, which has the correct nutritional composition and the same taste and texture of organically produced food, means that the availability of food is no longer affected by limited resources, bad crop weather, or spoilage."

Follow the information BIRDIE to learn more about the tasty vegetables produced by robots in 2049.

Monday, October 19, 2009

Hey guys, I would have emailed you all but since I don't have everyone's email address I figured I would just post here and hope you see it. I don't know if anyone is still planning on meeting from 3-5 today to discuss our project, but I unfortunately will not be able to. I just recently got a new job and I keep forgetting that I need to be there on Mondays, my bad.

All of my information is a few posts down FEEL FREE to contact me if you want to chat about our project. Also, since I don't know if today is even happening anymore, here are a few other times when I will be available to do a get together and talk about this project with you guys.

Tuesday- 1p-2p & potentially around 7p if neededWednesday- any time before 4pThursday- 2:30p until class time I have open

Let me know where everyone else is at/ if anyone wants to meet at one of these times.

Friday, October 16, 2009

In the year 2009 "most routine business transactions (purchases, travel, reservations) take place between a human and a virtual personality. Often, the virtual personality includes an animated visual presence that looks like a human face."- Ray Kurzweil, The Age of Spiritual Machines

Use this to retweet interesting articles. You can maybe add a video that is in the article to this blog, and also add a link to your retweet which will then link to the original article.Convoluted? Probably, but I did this so we could start forming more of a web of nodes instead of just nodes off of this blog to an article.

So I've been thinking about what's gonna happen when it comes to technology and people. Today, there's a rise of cellphones that have more than just the ability to call people, there are MP3 players that have cameras and internet access and p2p sharing, and we're living in a world where social networking has becomes the new dating and friendship connection. We're, in a sense, relying on machines and the internet at an increasing alarming rate, to the point that one day we won't be able to function without them.

Further back, what about things like cars and trains - they were, at one point, considered technological advancements. Today, we've modified and created systems that are so much more efficient, and we continue to improve them. We've evolved past even needing to travel or send something out to get in contact someone. We've surpassed the physical realm, and we think that this technology will always be there. Imagine what would happen when the internet crashes?

So, assuming that our main idea for this project will follow the main idea of the book, lets say that all of our posts should be about the evolution of machines. Where machines began, and where they are currently, and where they are going.

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Basically, the arm responds to foot pedal motions that the user creates. Eventually, Dean Kamen, the inventor of the Segway, wants to implant these sensors in the brain somehow...human and machines combining.